Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
If you have not looked into this Martial Art, you should. Over the years, I have studied Karate, Judo, Aikido, Shorin-Ryu. Mostly I studied these arts because I was fascinated with the self-control aspect of Martial Arts. But I also wanted to be able to effectively defend myself.
In my younger years I had the opportunity to be involved in several…. altercations. My general opinion was that in general Martial Arts helps. You become more aware of opponents mistakes, you think and move quicker and you can block punches pretty effectively.
However, that is where I think the usefulness of these arts ends. Occasionally, you get the opportunity to use a lock or snap kick someone but usually, the typical brawl ends up on the floor in some form of wrestling match.
A few years ago I happened to watch something called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Wow, what an eye opener. Back then there were very few rules, no eye gouging and no biting. The best thing happened when they took away the time limits (no rounds). These fights really resembled brawls, real fights. No weight classes no breaks nothing.
Out of no where (at least to me) this little guy kept winning. His name is Royce Gracie. Ok, he is not really little, he’s 6 feet tall 176 lbs. If you look at some of the old UFC stuff, you will see him fighting guys that have 75 or 100 lbs on him. It’s very impressive. He did it with skill and a lot of personal strength. Some of these matches were incredibly long 16 minutes, 35 minutes. Just amazing to watch.
Over the years, I checked into training in a Gracie academy but there were none around me here in Colorado. Then as my career advanced and college took over my life I kind of let it go. Then, my kids grew up some and were old enough to start training. I swore as a kid that my kids would start Martial Arts as early as they reasonably could (I kind of had to train in secret and fund it myself).
I checked into my favorite Karate dojo, long ago closed. My favorite school was the American Judo-Budo College but that was more about art than fun and defense that younger kids need to stay interested. So we went on the random hunt. Here were the requirements I was looking for, fun and kid oriented, confidence building and live sparring.
I know, I know, sparring?? Well, if you have ever been in a fight then you know that no amount of shadow boxing or technique practice will prepare you for the insult of actually being hit. Yes, it is important that kids build confidence and esteem but they also need to be prepared to actually defend themselves. The latter always leads to the former, but not always vice-versa.
I simply could not find a school that incorporated live sparring into their training. So, I settled… I went with a local Taekwondo dojo. We were not there real long before they went out of business. Some kind of major disagreement with the parent company.
We moved on to another dojo and started training again. There was still no live sparring but the classes were more fun and things seemed to be going well. Then the school disassembled. It was run by a "country star" and part-time martial artist. It turns out that the instructor was also a part-time scam artist. Really a shame because he was a talented instructor. But, he scammed some people out of their money and high tailed it out of town.
So, I gave up for a while. Then a new school opened up not far from my house, the sign said Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Vale tudo. Being a little gun shy, I waited six-months before going in. I wanted to be sure that they would stay in business. Finally I went in and talked with Joe Cartagena about training philosophy, background etc.
Mr. Cartagena has trained in several arts but decided to start over with the Rickson Gracie academy. Mr. Cartagena has achieved the rank of purple belt and is still training when time permits at a Rickson Gracie academy in California.
After checking him out and watching a few classes I decided to enroll my kids. My kids have learned more in the last couple of months about self defense and self confidence than they learned in the previous two years at the other schools.
Almost every class they are in they have to "live roll" to put into practice what they are learning. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. They have learned to lose gracefully and to win with humility. Very important life skills. My daughter had a boy in our neighborhood that picked on her constantly, she put him down without hurting him in under 30 seconds. He has never bothered her again.
This is the real beauty of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it teaches how to submit an opponent without really causing harm. Control is the first thing you learn. So if you are looking for a good Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy in Colorado check out the Fusen academy. Joe Cartagena is an excellent instructor with a real talent for knowing how far to push a kid without making the kid feeling like a loser.